KOYA, Kurdistan Region — Najat Abdulrazaq lives alone in the town of Koya, Erbil province. She spends her days caring for stray animals in the city, earning her the title "Angel of the Stray Dogs."

Living in a tiny room in the Girdi neighbourhood, Abdulrazaq feeds stray dogs and cats every day and shelters them at night.

Abdulrazaq, 59, worked in the education directorate in Koya. Now retired, she spends a portion of her pension on food for the animals.

"When I get food, I'll feed the dogs and cats twice or three times a day, because I enjoy feeding them and I feel attached to them," she said.

Stray dogs are often considered a menace and a public health issue in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region and authorities have adopted various methods to bring the population under control – in Sulaimani, an animal rights organization is neutering dogs, in Nineveh, hundreds of stray dogs have been poisoned, in Kirkuk, police are killing dogs. 

Tears come to Abdulrazaq’s eyes when she recounts taking care of injured dogs and cats and she says she is grateful the Koya police treat the stray animals with kindness. 

"I'm worried about what the Kirkuk police have recently done with the stray dogs, because instead of providing them with shelter, they've been shooting them with shotguns,” she said. 

The stray cats and dogs first caught Abdulrazaq’s attention in 2006 when she would push her ill mother in her wheelchair for walks through the city and saw the poor state of the animals. 

The head of an animal rights organization said people like Abdulrazaq are a great help for the animals, but more needs to be done at an official level to care for the animals. 

“Shelters for animals must be provided where veterinarians and trainers are employed to neuter these animals and vaccinate them to ensure they are in good health,” said Bakhtiyar Khalid, head of the Dogs Rights Advocate Organization. 

"People like Abdulrazaq should be employed at such shelters as they're caregivers to these animals. It's better for their health and they can better serve the animals," he added.

Translation by Sarkawt Mohammed